Pepperdine led, 55-46, after Moriba De Freitas sank the front end of a 1-and-1 with 3:41 remaining. UH cut it to 60-55 on Joaquim’s short turnaround jumper on the right baseline with 1:02 left. The Warriors regained possession twice shortly thereafter, but could not convert either time.

Jackson then sank two free throws with 42 seconds remaining to make it 62-55 and added another foul shot 14 seconds later to push it to 63-55. UH could only manage a free throw by Joaquim with 7.7 ticks on the clock.

Hawai’i struggled from the field in the first half, making just 8 of 28 field goals (27 percent). Pepperdine, meanwhile, drained 7 of 14 shot from 3-point range.

The Warriors also were plagued by poor free throw shooting throughout the game, finishing a dismal 13 of 26 (50 percent) from the line.

Almost EVERY Team WILL Have a Bad Game or Two in The Course of a Long Season…

This is MORE Likely for A Team — that although they are generally hard workers has demonstrated now “repeatedly” that they don’t know yet how to ‘Consistently Play Hard for 40+ Minutes” i hope we only have two or fewer “Bad Games” but for a young team that may be asking too much… the good news, If Any, is that the “Losing Lapses” have come against “Winning” Teams — Pepperdine (6-3 with THREE ROAD WINS) and Nationally Ranked Illinois and UNLV …So Have Much to Learn from these teams…

KEEP Improving … We Were Reminded Repeatedly in Pre-Season that this IS A Very Young Team and that even the juniors and seniors don’t have a lot of time together… As hard as they do work, Good Defense and Consistent Play should be achievable over time…

Many Players still don’t have even have their game legs and game shooting touches yet …

It Is Early …

One of the Few things Worse than Playing Ugly is Losing Ugly …
BUT We should ‘expect’ a few ugly Big West Games … scrambles… ideally we win more than our share…

———–

Shout Out to Ozi & Ozi Mum — Ozi Finally starting to Connect on his Three and speaking well — Mum should be be Proud — on the Radio Post-Game Show… what do i need to work on? …”Better Defense, it’s coming around and more Confidence in my shot…” On the Post-Game Fans’ Autograph Session tonight: …’it’s nice the support the fans give us”…

I was afraid of that. This team has not played well the last 3 games and is not shooting the ball well. Free throws are still a problem. The offense is lethargic, lots of standing around and not passing the ball crisply. Spearman and Brereton and Joaquim had below par games and they are counted on for scoring. Not much to say, except that Gib Arnold has to do something to get this team out of their funk. Give credit to the Waves, they hit their outside shots well and they made their free throws. Their guards drove in the middle and kicked it out for open shots and they knocked it down consistently. That was the key of the game to me. We could never get the lead and I think the refs got into the heads of some of our players with some of the calls. Plain and simple, we got outplayed, period.

Too bad Jawato and Harper didn’t get some time. Jawato is a good shooter from the outside and Harper is a hustler. We could have used both. Standhardinger had a tough time inside, but he kept battling and he made some shots from the perimeter and got to the line quite a bit.

Pepperdine did a good job doubling the post hard and forcing the bigs to pass out to shooters that currently are not confident. Jace had 3-3’s surprisingly. A problem as it has been since vander started playing for UH is that he takes too long to decide on his move. The double comes and the decision comes way too late. Once the ball came out, Pepperdine knew where the ball would go. If he did make a move he put himself in a bad position. The bigs did not do a good enough job of squaring themselves and creating room to get off high percentage shots. It looked as if they were just throwing stuff up.

I don’t like questioning any coach’s move, but I didn’t understand Gib’s substitution patterns. Too many things to list, but they were erratic and many lineups did not make sense.

No energy, no physicality, no flow, no awareness, no confidence.

How can the boys dominate Illinois, outplay UNLV and then put up a stinker against Pepperdine?!

Yes, agree with Derek, don’t understand why Jawato and Harper don’t get PT.
You never know they could be the spark this team needs.
They also should be given a chance to get experience and build their confidence.
It is a bit perplexing.

i had hoped the team would be far enough along, advanced enough to earn either controlling leads (‘most’ nights) or recover from falling behind (zero for last three losses)….

to allow coach to experiment or take risks with players like Jawato and Harper….

But so far, it’s a struggle with Manroop, Ozi & Garrett …. i’m sure they’re showing both flashes of brilliance and a chance to develop into consistency In Practices …but even for these ‘near-future stars’ (we can foresee ALL of them eventually getting there) they’re still mostly negative on effectiveness & efficency stats….

Would be Nice to have The Freedom to bring them all along game time …
(but No Developmental or Summer/Fall/Winter/Spring League yet…)

Both Games are Great — The Ultimate Team Sport (That’s Why a Pepperdine CAN Defeat a Hawai’i) and The Game of Kings — Basketball and Chess — BOTH Require Vision Beyond what is currently on the Court or Game Board… Both Require Quick Thinking (especially SpeedChess) and Suffering Can Be Brutal…Understanding of Angles and Orchestrating Players with Different Skills and Abilities …In Basketball All Players Can Be moving at Once … In Chess must see the threat of moves whether made or not….

Both are MOST Powerful when The Whole Team is Engaged …
“Queens” Acting Alone are Quickly Trapped or even Taken Off of the Board

But You were Meditating Upon a More Peaceful Picture !
Which is Important to Ozi & Team’s ability to Play Relaxed….
Great Mum!

——

IF Hawai’i Played Pepperdine 10 Times Could Hawai’i Win Five or Six ?.
PU Won Home and Home…
i Think That’s Why Coach sounded So Depressed After the Game —
IF The Team Stays at This Level
(They Won’t OR Better Not)
Would they even make it back to 16-16?

This Job is Way Harder than it Looks even to An Insider…

Got to Get it Up Before We Let Chaminade Ambush Another Team on a (Slight) Downslide…
THAT Would Be A Slippery Slope…